Another HHH autosplit question

[eclecticsynergy]

Musing on this while thinking about another thread; decided to start one specific to this specific particular issue.
Answers here might be useful someday for those running three full sized hums also.

In this case running full sized bridge & neck hums and a stack in the middle.
(Stack is fairly strong and a bit fat but still somewhat singlecoil-ish in character.)

Will autosplitting the full sized hums still give nice in-between tones when combined with a middle full stack?
Or is the stack likely to overpower the split coils completely in positions 2 and 4, to the point that there's little difference?

What do you guys think?


Have a toggle to resistor-split the hums for once in a while (autosplit bypasses those resistors of course).
But for decent 2 & 4 tones am I going to need a push-pull to split the middle too?

I know I could use a Superswitch and autosplit the middle as well, but I'd prefer to keep it simple if practical.
Also understand I wouldn't get full noise rejection combining a split coil with the full stack - I'm okay with that for positions 2 & 4.

 

[Mincer]

I think this is a case of 'wire it up and find out'. While you will get noise in 2 & 4, it is only up to you to say how authentic those tones are for you.

 

[Artie]

Will autosplitting the full sized hums still give nice in-between tones when combined with a middle full stack?
Or is the stack likely to overpower the split coils completely in positions 2 and 4, to the point that there's little difference?

This will depend quite a bit on which specific pups you select. You can get hot humbuckers and mild stacks, and vice-versa. I've found that the notch "jangle" has as much to do with the different string nodes as it does single-coil chime. Although, single-coils will provide more.

Also understand I wouldn't get full noise rejection combining a split coil with the full stack - I'm okay with that for positions 2 & 4.

I've also found that you can have a fairly wide spread on DCR, and still get decent hum-cancelling. You should be good to go on both counts, but as Mincer said, you gotta try it and see.

 

[ThreeChordWonder]

The second coil in most "noiseless" stacked "single" coils doesn't contribute much, if anything, to the guitar signal. It's some way from the pickup magnet, pole pieces and strings. It's actually there to intentionally pick up hum, out of phase hum, in order to cancel out the hum picked up by the main coil.

 

[eclecticsynergy]

The second coil in most "noiseless" stacked "single" coils doesn't contribute much, if anything, to the guitar signal. It's some way from the pickup magnet, pole pieces and strings. It's actually there to intentionally pick up hum, out of phase hum, in order to cancel out the hum picked up by the main coil.

Yah, hopefully it won't interfere too much with the in-between tones.
If those positions lack quack, I could wire the stack normally split, with a push-pull restoring it to series mode.


I guess it was a little silly of me to hope for a general answer that would suit many different pickups.
In this case none of the pickups are high output, though the stack is a bit beefier than vintage output Strat singles.

As Mincer says, I'll just have to try it.

 

[ThreeChordWonder]

^ Don't confuse high DCR values with high outputs from stacked noise canceling. If the two coils are wired in series, the DCRreading will be the sum of those of the two coils, but the output is more akin to a pickup with half the quoted total DCR for the reasons above.

Interestingly (or not) my SD Vintage Stack sounds slightly louder split than it does in full hum canceling. I personally believe that's because the extra impedance of the hum canceling coil is slightly diminishing the output from the main pickup coil.

 

[eclecticsynergy]

My stack isn't high output at all, just a little louder than vintage Strat pickups which are pretty low output.
Some of what I hear as extra push might simply be that it's fatter sounding. As I remember its DCR is only around 7K.
Like you say, most of that wire must be in the primary coil.

Interesting about the Vintage Stack sounding louder when split.
I think some of that might be timbre-related too, perhaps some extra brightness helping it stand out more.
500K pots with yours?